Three questions that I asked myself before planning my Alpine journey with the Alvina project (www.progettoalvina.it, for more details):

1. Why walking?

2. Why walking in the Alps?

3. Why walking along the VIA ALPINA?

Rather easy to answer actually:

1. Walking is written in the human genome, though we tend to forget it in our everyday lives. It will take so many generations to become just “brains”. In the meantime, we have two legs made for walking!

2. Walking in the Alps is many people’s the dream. As a matter of fact, the Alps are a unique territory where you can find united souls as well as diversity. The Alps are the first choice for many hikers.

3. The VIA ALPINA is an amazing network of routes throughout the Alpine range: up and down, east to west, north to south. You may decide to walk a bit of it or the entire trail: anyway you won’t be lost. Somebody has already walked those steps. You can follow the VIA ALPINA by the book, or you can choose alternative paths best suited to your ideas, your physical conditions, weather conditions and any other possible variable.

Since the whole journey from Trieste to Montecarlo was too long for me, I decided to divide it into two stages: Trieste-Edolo (Brescia, Italy) last year and Edolo-Montecarlo this year. As you can see, in the middle of these two steps there is a University, my University (Università degli Studi di Milano) with its mountain branch in Edolo (www.unimontagna.it).

This year, I’m going to leave for the second leg, which is longer than the first one. I plan to reach Montecarlo by mid-August.

Among others, with this journey I’d like to show that it does not matter how old you are and how good your physical condition is, you can still hike long distances and take advantage of the positive effects this kind of walking has on body and mind. As a matter of fact, I’m an elderly university professor, I’m not a mountain professional, I have no technical mountain expertise, and I am not lion-hearted! I just like walking and try to do it regularly, even in my everyday life. Of course it is preferable to do it surrounded by beautiful scenery like the Alps!

I’m going to hike alone, in solitario. It is a better condition for such a long distance hike where I have to take care of and rely only on myself. However, I’m not a bear and I’m happy to share my feelings with others. Nonetheless, I will not start a blog, because I wish to stay focused on the hike, but anyone can follow my tracks, view shared pictures and from time to time, read some notes following this link: http://www.unimontagna.it/progetto-alvina-2017/